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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Are you fit?

Just like many of us fight the seemingly uphill battle to remain physically fit, we must fight to remain financially fit.  I have spoken on this subject before and I will speak on it in the future not only because part of the title of my blog is 'finance', but because financial fitness is important. 
Financial fitness does not mean we have to be filthy rich or even strive to be filthy rich. If it happens though, so much the better.  Financial fitness means that we have something saved for a rainy day. It means we  at least have something saved for an emergency.  Many of us have heard that we should have three to six months of reserve in case we lose our jobs. I believe we should work towards this goal, but the reality is many people are still suffering from job loss, lost homes, ruined credit, and the feeling that they will never make it back from financial ruin.     
The fact is though, many people have come back from financial ruin.  Many of the wealthy, well-to-do people we hear about or watch on television or read about in the news, have lost everything and made it back.  Want some names? Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Michael Jackson, to name a few.
What will be your legacy?  Will you start over? Will you try again?  These people did.
Financial fitness is not rocket science, just like exercise is not rocket science.  In exercise you have choices: join a gym, pay monthly or annual fees, and work out before or after work.  Hey, you can even work out during your lunch time. You may choose not to join a gym and do your own thing.  I walk 30 minutes, three times per week. Oh I'm not talking about leisurely walks in the park, I'm talking sweat drenched, fancy sneaker-wearing, bug spray from head to toe because I live in Florida types of walks.  Whatever it takes to keep the weight off.
Just so in financial fitness. You should save a portion of your paycheck, whether its $5.00 or 5%.  There really are no excuses.  You do not need to worry about financial charts, quantitative easing, or portfolio diversification.  Don't use that as an excuse. You can save whether you work at a burger joint or whether you manage a Fortune 500 company.  That's the great thing about America: it's really up to you, no excuses.  I know, some people are born in the negative, products of a bad start because of where they live or the circumstances under which they were born.  It doesn't matter, choose.  Choose to be financially fit.  Just like exercise, it will pay off in the long run.

http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/personal-finance/5-famous-people-beat-bankruptcy/

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Warning Signs

I don't know about you, but many of the problems and issues I have faced in my life were preceded by warning signs.  It did not matter how major or minor the problem was, when I look back, I saw the warning signs. In some, well most cases, I ignored the signs or just missed them all together.  In fact, I can tell you in which problems I missed the signs and in which problems I ignored the signs.
You may see yourself in some of the following examples, either way, take this as a warning sign.  I have visited the country of Belize many times.  I love it there and look forward to another trip some time in the future.  On my last trip I lost a watch that I liked very much.  The issue?  I was warned that I could lose the watch.  How?  The clasp had been loose for quite some time.  I 'kept meaning to fix it' but never got around to it.  I can even tell you where I believe it fell off of my hand.  It was in the airport, the day of my arrival.  I reached back to grab my luggage and as I sat in the taxi driving away from the airport I realized my watch was gone.  I had that watch for about eight  years before I lost it due to ignoring the signs.  I have since purchased another watch, same brand, prettier; but I often think not so much of the watch, but about the warning signs.
If you are anything like me, you probably have similar stories.  The watch story was about ignoring the signs, let me give you an example of missing the signs.  Missing signs typically happen due to naivete or ignorance.  Sometimes missing the signs happen when you just want something so badly.  You know what I mean.  That person you really had no business dating--or marrying or that loan or business decision you just had a bad feeling about. 
The warning signs are all around us.  Some people call them 'that first mind', that 'gut feeling', or for those of us who are Christians, The Holy Spirit speaking to us.  Well, God does speak to His children.  He does warn us in our spirit against certain decisions, situations, or people; but he leaves the final decision to us.
The next time you see a warning sign, don't ignore or miss it.  Listen and take heed, or pay the price.  Yes, there is always a price to pay whether the warning sign was missed or ignored. "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." II Samuel 15:22.  Please read the entire chapter, it really gives you the opportunity to see how important it is not to ignore or miss signs.  In fact, this story shows us how detrimental missing or ignoring signs can be--even unto death.  Its just not worth it to ignore or miss warning signs.  Keep your heart and your eyes open and listen.
Life is short, pay attention to the warning signs!  
 

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Do not idle

When I was a kid growing up in Dorchester, Mass., just outside of Boston; my Mom used to send me to the grocery store.  Sometimes I went by myself and sometimes she made me take my little sister which of course annoyed me.  But without fail, every time she sent me to the store she said 'do not idle.'  One day I asked her what 'idle' meant, and she said that it meant I was not to stop at my friends house or even stop on the side walk to chit chat. I was not to stop at the corner store to buy candy or chips. I was not allowed to let anyone stop me from my errand: going to the store, or coming back from the store.
Well, I wasn't a perfect kid, but I wasn't an idler.  I think it had something to do with being the oldest of five.  I was given more responsibilities and more was expected of me.  I was blamed if the house wasn't clean when my parents got home from work for instance. So of course I was what my siblings called 'bossy'!  The nerve of those people!
Alas, I digress! 
Idle.  Do you know that as adults we can and do idle? Another word for idle could be procrastinate, putting things off until another time, after time, after time.  Then before you know it a year has gone by, two years, five years, 10 year, then 20! By which time you have compiled a wish list of things you believe are now too late to start or finish. 
I have good news for you!  As long as you are alive you have a chance.  Stop making excuses.  I took classes online: one of the most difficult ways to attend school, with people who were doing the same thing while taking care of small children and working full time.  In fact, when you obtain or achieve a goal later in life, it means more to you.  You cherish it more. 
Stop waiting for some day, tomorrow, Monday, January; when your kids are older...there will never be a perfect time.  Sit down, count the costs: "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?"
Luke 14:28.  In other words, use common sense; which you probably have more of as you experience life, but do not use 'circumstances' as an excuse.  

Step out, or as the hymn says, launch out into the deep.  Because any fisherman will tell you, the fish are out in the deep, all you get in the shallows is mud and muck. 
Do not idle.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Make your way through

There's a saying that 'you're either coming out of a problem, in the middle of a problem, or just heading into a problem.'  I don't know who said it, but I find it to be true.  I've also heard that the way you handle a problem will determine how long you stay in the problem.  If you dwell in negativity and a bad attitude, the problem will hang around longer than if you decide that this issue will not get the best of you.  No matter how bad things seem, if you push through and tell yourself that 'this too shall pass', that attitude will bring you through faster. If you allow bitterness, fear, or hatred, to get even a toehold into your situation, your situation can become exponentially worse.

Please realize that the troubles I am talking about are not problems such as a minor fender bender on the way to work, being a few dollars short and being days from pay day, or co-workers that get on your nerves.  These are things that you can deal with, or make work, even to God's glory.  No, I'm talking about issues so serious that it seems your entire life has or will change because of this issue.  Most of us had a general plan for our lives, plans so general that we all assumed, and took for granted that these plans would come to pass.  But what happens when we realize our lives will not happen the way we expected or hoped?  How will we handle these realizations, and how will we live the life we have been given?  How will we play the hand we have been dealt?

We all have the ability to make choices.  We all have the opportunity to choose positively or negatively what we will do when life does not work out in the way we expected.  We can allow ourselves to become and remain stuck in a place of bitterness or hatred, or we can decide to live a blessed and positive life even if it is not the life we wanted.  Decide.  Decision.  Most of us know what the word decision means.  We know how to spell it without much difficulty, it is a word that is used by most of the general population; but I took the liberty of looking up the definition on Bing.com. Decision=process of choosing: the process of coming to a conclusion or determination about something.  So there were three definitions on Bing.com.  This is the third definition and I preferred it to the other two definitions because it seemed more definite to me.  After all, once you come to a decision on most things in life, it is difficult to change your mind without some level of difficulty, otherwise it wasn't much of an issue to begin with.  My opinion.

When you come to a conclusion or determination that you will not allow bitterness or any other negative emotion to become the norm in your life, you have made a decision.  And it was a good decision.  I do not like to use the word ugly to describe anyone because we are all made in the image of God.  I do not believe there are any physically ugly people.  I do believe however, that negative emotions can make people ugly.  If you decide to allow bitterness, hatred, envy, backbiting, backstabbing, or any negative emotion or act to take up residence in you, you will become that emotion.  Those emotions are ugly. 

If you decide to push through whatever issues brought you to these emotions, even if you must live with those issues or problems your entire life, you do not have to live with those emotions.  Don't stay there, don't dwell there, make your way through.  If you do this, all of the negative emotions must go.  They can't hang around where they are not used. 
Hang in there and allow God to make all your crooked ways straight.